fluteguy18 wrote:oddly enough, the oboe players are the nicest people at my university....
Except Lindsey... she's a meanie. XP
Just kidding. The double reeds in general have great attitudes at Eastern. I don't know what it is about them, but they are definately the studio with the least drama in the whole department.
You also get kudos for your playing tonight (which was great, as if I haven't told you that several times already) and for shaking his hand after. That was very professional of you - even if his behavior last week wasn't. I think he was very pleased with it - and so was everyone else in the audience.
the concert was tonight. It went really well, and the conductor was really pleased with me [he actually smiled at me during the performance, then did something completely out of charachter.... had me stand up alone after the piece, then had everyone stand up..... very unusual from his usual behavior I am told].
What he didnt know, was that I was shaking before the solo, and afterwards as well, [and had a small panic attack in the process]. I have never been nervous like that.... EVER! I havent been nervous about a performance in YEARS.... but tonight I was an internal wreck. But, I went on autopilot and everything went well.
I played in a band under a certain conductor for YEARS. From when I was 14 until the age of 22. When I first encountered her I found her terrifying- she didn't miss a trick, she thought nothing of stopping the band to admonish you for wrong notes or bad intonation, she would not tolerate talking, yawning, mobile phones, crossed legs, her bugbear list was about ten miles long! She had armies of students badmouthing her across the region for being a dragon.
This woman is now someone I look up to as the biggest positive influence on my musical life. She taught me that the audience deserve my best performance every time, she taught me discipline, and she made me into a great team player.
I'm not saying this guy who conducted you isn't an idiot, just that there could be more to it than you think
TheScarecrow wrote:Oboe players are built up to feel important. They are constantly singled out through solos, tuning, ammount of players, and the difficulty of the instrument. This certainly doesn't excuse them acting the way they sometimes do, but you can sort of understand where it comes from. Flutes learn to play in a group from a young age where as often times the oboe is the only one in the band.
Also once you learn to play the oboe, it is very easy to pick up a second instrument and sadly we often make it very clear the latter is the easier of the two.
All those elements combined and you get a stuck up player. This isn't always the case because I am not one to act like that and many other players don't act like this either, but fairly often it can happen.
Also SK I did pick a peice. I'm cutting it down a little bit but I decided on the Cantabile et Presto.
im actually considering learning oboe, or something as rare as it. Then ill be a shoe in! flute has SO SO much competition. its like.... wow, hard, to get in.
Claiken wrote:
im actually considering learning oboe, or something as rare as it. Then ill be a shoe in! flute has SO SO much competition. its like.... wow, hard, to get in.
I don't want to deter you from trying if that is what you wish but you should keep in mind that playing the oboe is never ever a shoe in. It is a ridiculously complicated instrument and the people that are good at the oboe are incredibly good. Also be ready to have a very very large budget. The bottum of the line oboe that will suit you for anything past highschool is around 3-4 grand. Not to mention for the first couple years you will spend between 15-20 dollars per read and you have to buy them pretty often. After that you will have to start making reeds which can often take hours upon hours. For me it takes about two days of working on one for id say 4 hours at a shot to make a quality reed. Last but not least be prepared to completely wreck you flute embochure and have to rebuild that while still trying to make noise on the oboe much less good tone.
I made it work in reverse order (oboe to flute) but just keep in mind what a challenge it is to pick up the oboe. My suggestion would be to double in something more practical like saxophone. A tripler (flute picc sax) would be useful to a symphony, pit band, jazz band or whatever else you need it for. Good luck and let me know if you need any tips (assuming you decide to pick up the oboe).
ps. as a pro to picking up the oboe. After learning the oboe it is pretty simple to pick up more and more instruments.
My junior high school concert band had one oboe spot reserved for an exceptional clarinetist or flutist. Stupidly, I accepted the invitation to play it in my 8th grade year following a few years of flute playing under my belt. Scarecrow is correct on what it does to a flute embouchure. That's what happened in my case and it took another several months after I quit playing the oboe to get it back to where it was before I began. The oboe is a beautiful instrument. But if one plans to pursue a professional career on the flute, it would be my advice not to pick up that instrument.
As Scarecrow said, it is also very expensive. Not only does an oboist have to spend time making reeds and buy the raw materials, they also have to purchase the costly equipment used to make them. Perhaps this is a big part of why my experience has always been that oboists have extremely poor dispositions compared to other musicians in the orchestra.
I can see that. The oboe and basson players are ALWAYS working on reeds. There is even a room in the music building set aside for them to make their reeds.
Although.... the oboe professor really enjoys making a reed. She is writing her dissertation about reeds....
Making reeds can be a ton of fun!... sometimes. Othertimes you spend 3 hours getting a reed perfect and then accidentally move the knife the tiniest little bit in the wrong direction and the reed is ruined. Also, a reed has about 1 good week of playing in it and about two weeks devoted to breaking in and about 2 more weeks where it is worn down before you need to have another one. I usually make one every couple days so I always have a fresh supply to switch between during playing.
Plus my initial cost on oboe reed making supplies was almost 1000. It requires somewhere around 20 very expensive peices plus the cane and the staples for each one.
It is a very rewarding and beautiful instrument and as much as I love the flute I would choose oboe over it. However, I would not suggest majoring in flute and having oboe on the side. Pick something that won't wreck your flute. Like I said, saxophone is a fairly easy choice, or even clarinet.
If you are absolutely dead set on playing a double reed, pick up the bassoon. It is a more expensive hobby than even the oboe, but a bassoon embochoure won't hurt the flute as much.
flute has SO SO much competition. its like.... wow, hard, to get in.